John Lewis Broadband terrible experience

Annikka_Green

I moved back to the UK in June after working abroad to a property I bought last year, which had a very old phone connection point. Using the MSE tools I selected John Lewis Broadband for my broadband and phone service on 23rd June. I selected 1st or 2nd July for installation and paid upfront costs. All appeared to be well. But within a day of booking JLB changed my installation date to 9th July. Not ideal to wait a week as I have no mobile signal inside my home. The Openreach technician came, took a few photos, said he could not do anything without a hoist and left. A few days later JLB gave me another appointment date for 2 weeks later. I stayed in all day and nobody came!
I contacted JLB who said a technician had attended (I cannot see it is possible unless they came on a different day). They informed me to "contact the neighbours to allow them to drill through the wall" which did not make any sense at all for my property which is on the ground floor of a block of flats with 3 external walls. Which neighbour? Which wall? They repeated this type of communication over the ensuing weeks and I never got to the bottom of what the problem was or which neighbour or which wall. JLB did give me another appointment date of a few weeks later for installation but when I called them to ask whether this would be the end of it, they could not confirm. They then emailed me 2 days before to say my order was cancelled. But when I called them they indicated it was not them that cancelled. The communications were by this time fraught as it was now more than 2 months since I placed my order. My elderly parents had had no way of contacting me. Luckily I am not working from home as I would probably have lost my job by then. They were not sympathetic.
I then placed an order with BT. I got an appointment less than a week after placing my order. The Openreach technician who attended worked on my connection for 5.5 hours and by the time he finished on 30th August 2021 I finally got my fibre broadband and phone line. The technician didn't need to drill through anyone's wall and didn't even need a hoist!
After contacting JLB by phone several times they still could not understand how bad their service had been and what nonsense communications about the neighbours. They initially refused compensation too. I contacted JLB on social media (Facebook) and I got my upfront money refunded into my bank account and after some negotiation they sent me a compensation cheque for £55 which helped towards my enormous PAYG mobile bill.
I don't know when my property had a working telephone line, but I would urge anyone who doesn't have an existing working line to use BT. And anyone thinking of JLB I am not recommending them at all. It was a horrendous experience. If I had gone to BT in the first place I would not have been without internet and phone for 2 months

neilmcl

Sounds like you were getting two different products from different providers and they both have their own installation issues. the JL broadband would've been standard copper installation and possibly more complex because of routing the existing copper to your flat whereas the BT broadband was full FTTP fibre and whilst the install took longer was in fact more straightforward to do as it was a clean fibre installation. FYI, JLB is provided by Plusnet who can't control how Openreach operate other than booking the appointments whereas BT have a lot more control.

brewerdave

neilmcl said:

Sounds like you were getting two different products from different providers and they both have their own installation issues. the JL broadband would've been standard copper installation and possibly more complex because of routing the existing copper to your flat whereas the BT broadband was full FTTP fibre and whilst the install took longer was in fact more straightforward to do as it was a clean fibre installation. FYI, JLB is provided by Plusnet who can't control how Openreach operate other than booking the appointments whereas BT have a lot more control.

Doesn't actually state anywhere that it was FTTP ?

neilmcl

brewerdave said:

neilmcl said:

Sounds like you were getting two different products from different providers and they both have their own installation issues. the JL broadband would've been standard copper installation and possibly more complex because of routing the existing copper to your flat whereas the BT broadband was full FTTP fibre and whilst the install took longer was in fact more straightforward to do as it was a clean fibre installation. FYI, JLB is provided by Plusnet who can't control how Openreach operate other than booking the appointments whereas BT have a lot more control.

Doesn't actually state anywhere that it was FTTP ?

The fact that the install took 5.5 hours and the OP stating that they had fibre installed would sort of lead you believe the chances are it was FTTP.

Annikka_Green

neilmcl said:

Sounds like you were getting two different products from different providers and they both have their own installation issues. the JL broadband would've been standard copper installation and possibly more complex because of routing the existing copper to your flat whereas the BT broadband was full FTTP fibre and whilst the install took longer was in fact more straightforward to do as it was a clean fibre installation. FYI, JLB is provided by Plusnet who can't control how Openreach operate other than booking the appointments whereas BT have a lot more control.

I am aware of JLB being part of Plusnet and reliance on Openreach, and believe the nonsense communications resulted directly from this complexity.
I don't believe I ordered two different products. JLB said to me categorically they only do FTTP.

neilmcl

Annikka_Green said:

neilmcl said:

Sounds like you were getting two different products from different providers and they both have their own installation issues. the JL broadband would've been standard copper installation and possibly more complex because of routing the existing copper to your flat whereas the BT broadband was full FTTP fibre and whilst the install took longer was in fact more straightforward to do as it was a clean fibre installation. FYI, JLB is provided by Plusnet who can't control how Openreach operate other than booking the appointments whereas BT have a lot more control.

I am aware of JLB being part of Plusnet and reliance on Openreach, and believe the nonsense communications resulted directly from this complexity.
I don't believe I ordered two different products. JLB said to me categorically they only do FTTP.

The only products, as far as I can see from the website, are the ADSL+ and FTTC products, therefore utilises existing copper to the home. FTTP is fibre all the way. What product are you on with BT?

Annikka_Green

I did ask JLB if they could not provide the product I had ordered what should I be ordering instead... did not get any response to that.

In both cases I ordered the most basic fibre product available for my postcode. BT product I have is called "Fibre 1"

neilmcl

Annikka_Green said:

I did ask JLB if they could not provide the product I had ordered what should I be ordering instead... did not get any response to that.

In both cases I ordered the most basic fibre product available for my postcode. BT product I have is called "Fibre 1"

Is your router connected to the telephone master socket or have they installed an ONT box on the wall that it's connected to?

Just to add to the confusion, a lot of ISPs have products that they've been calling fibre for a number of years but they're not full fibre or FTTP, but what they call Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC), ie, fibre to the green BT cabinet, then copper the rest of the way to your home's telephone master socket.

As mentioned the products offered by JL are FTTC only, the 'Fibre 1' product you've now go from BT may well be FTTP, albeit the most basic and slowest version, and hence why it took 5.5 hours to install.